Project: Water Bird — Part I

Project Water Bird Part I follows the Falcon (Kaze-no-Hane), a master shinobi living in quiet exile along a river in a dying Amazon rainforest, years after deserting his assassin clan, the Kurohane Shūdan. His peace shatters when the clan's elite enforcers (Crow, his former closest friend; Owl, his former teacher; and Kite, his jealous rival) track him down. The pursuit escalates until Kite cripples his wing, stripping him of flight and identity. Cornered and grounded, the Falcon faces the clan's ultimate weapon: the Eye of Feathers, a surveillance ritual that leashes his former kin as hollow puppets. He chooses to destroy the Eye, freeing them at great cost to everyone, and releases himself into the river. His fate is left ambiguous, the river becomes an archive of what happened, and weeks later a new character (the Shinobi Eagle) finds the ruins, seeding Part II.